How Hit is Modi’s HIT Formula?

By Deepak Parvatiyar

August 5, 2014

HIT in Kathmandu! Can Narendra Modi ask for any better? In the last few weeks, the Indian prime minister has shown his fondness for wordplay and slogans. The latest in the line is his prescription of a HIT formula to boost Indo-Nepal ties. “I have abbreviated the priorities as HIT — highways, information-ways and the third, transmission-ways,” he said during his visit last Sunday.

Obviously, HIT struck a chord with international media too. A New York Times headlines screamed: ‘Nepal Enthralled by Visit of India Premier, Who Hits ‘the Right Notes’.

The official Chinese media too has acknowledged that the Indian prime minister has done a lot to win hearts!

Competing with China

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Yet, there is more to the HIT formula than meets the eye. In recent times even China has stepped up its engagement with Nepal, with millions of dollars pumped into similar projects to boost the country’s infrastructure. It is important, therefore, that after Modi’s visit, the Chinese media remarked about the failure of India to clinch the power agreements with Nepal.

So, fresh questions arise about whether Modi’s initiatives, indeed, win back Nepal’s confidence?
After all, it was a pre-condition for any negotiation with India and the Nepalese Prime Minister Sushil Koirala had minced no words when just before Modi’s arrival to his country, he said categorically that India needs to build trust with Nepal.

Isn’t it surprising that it took 17 long years for an Indian prime minister to visit Nepal? Doesn’t this mean that all these years India was taking Nepal for granted? Ask any Nepalese and he will say so. And he has many other reasons too!

Trust Deficit in Indo – Nepal Relations

India does sound apocryphal to the people of Nepal. This is because India affects their daily lives. The similarity between the culture, the Hindu religion, common deities and an open international boundary – all sounds good on paper, yet the irony is that in the minds of an average Nepalese, India takes Nepal for granted. India is perceived as a ‘big brother’ and this has been for quite some time now. I was in Nepal on a journalistic assignment to report on the Maoists’ blockade of the capital city in 2004. India and China as well were not supporting the Maoists, yet the irony was that even then India remained a suspect in the minds of common Nepalese for the turmoil. Much to my dismay then, I realised that India-bashing was a common trend in Nepal. It continues to be so.

The close cultural ties between the two neighbours have even led to an uncomfortable identity crisis in the Himalayan nation that takes pride in its sovereignty. What else, therefore, explains the fact that one of the very first decisions of the new government of Nepal was to remove the celebrative tag of a constitutional Hindu nation from her name? As the tag was attached to Nepal for the last two and a half centuries, it signalled Nepal’s transition from monarchy to democracy.

During my visit I had realised and reported how the intellectuals in Nepal were caught oscillating between Hinduism and Buddhism and Christianity, in an attempt to bring about a new renaissance, perhaps, to shun the ever pervading feeling that “India takes us for granted”. (The 2001 Census by the Central Bureau of Statistics, Nepal, had shown a decline in the number of Hindus in the Himalayan kingdom, with more Nepalese opting for Buddhism, Christianity and traditional religions. However this trend was arrested subsequently and the 2011 census showed a marginal rise in the Hindu population from 80.62 per cent in 2001 to 81.3 per cent in 2011).

Things only went from bad to worse. Hence the statement by Koirala on the need for India to win Nepal’s trust!
It is against this light that Narendra Modi’s visit to Kathmandu should be analysed.

Confidence-winning Gestures

Modi all the time made it loud and clear that India did not want to interfere in Nepal’s internal affairs. Mark the statement that he made while addressing the Constituent Assembly (a first by any Indian prime minister) –“This is an honour for all Indians. I consider this as respect shown to 1.2 billion Indians.”

Modi did make many symbolic gestures to bridge the trust deficit between the two nations. He proposed $1 billion in concessional loans to help Nepal build power plants and roads; he left it to Nepal to make amendments to the contentious 1950 treaty between the two countries; he made a concerted effort to impress that India would not like to interfere in Nepal’s efforts in drafting its new Constitution — “My work is neither to give directive nor to interfere with your work in Nepal…because Nepal itself is a sovereign nation.

Yet, wasn’t Modi invoking Hindu sentiments when he hailed the drafting of the Constitution as “…writing a treatise just like the rishis in the past wrote the Vedas and Upanishads”. He gifted 2500 kg of sandal wood after he offered prayers at the famous Pashupatinath temple and described Nepal as a “federal democratic republic”, dropping the term “secular”.

We know that the Sangh Parivar is not comfortable with Nepal’s transition from a Hindu Rashtra to a secular state! Didn’t Modi provide evidence of such discomfort? Or, was it important to invoke Hinduism to foster better ties with Nepal?

To his credit, Modi did not call for explicit Hindu identification and said Nepal was “the birthplace of Lord Buddha.”
An important development was also Indian Prime Minister’s praise of the Nepal’s Maoists for shunning gun in favour of ballot (Remember the first Maoist prime minister of Nepal Pushpa Kamal Dahal alias Prachanda had preferred China over India as his first foreign destination!).

Obviously, Modi’s visit is a step in the right direction. We hope it starts a new chapter in Indo-Nepal cooperation. If it does so, it definitely will be a HIT!